Carbonfiberboy 

Your doctor is not entirely correct. It's more complicated that that, and for women it involves time after menopause. This is the only study I know of which looks at intensity as a factor in bone remodeling in both men and women:
https://www.researchgate.net/publica..._Men_and_Women

The authors admit it's not a perfect study. It's well worth reading the Discussion at the end if you don't feel like reading the whole thing. I found it very informative.

Besides the bone issue, the study found, and I think we all know that muscle mass increases with intensity when weight training. One might point out that heavy lifting increases both muscle mass and tendon strength, both of which prevent injury outside the gym.

Wildwood 

Ride On.

Love to hear the outlier cases of 80+ people doing huge feats people half their age find impossible. More power to them.

The practice of Medicine on human bodies is advancing almost as fast as Expectation in some human bodies. HGH, steroids (properly administered), a whole bunch of performance enhancement meds and pain relievers will allow goal oriented 'athletes' of all ages to do more, for longer periods of time, and with faster recovery - than someone with good ability + diet + routine. The question becomes "To what end?" even if done the honest drug-free way with no caffeine or hydration/performance tabs, etc. - just food & motivation.

Everyone has a different point-of-diminishing-returns. And a different answer to, What am I really training for?

I am more Lennon-esque than competitive-
I'm just sittin here Watchin the Wheels go round and round...... I really love to watch them roll.....Well, they give me all kinds of advice, to save me from ruin....When I say that I'm OK they look at me kinda strange..... Surely you're not happy now you no longer lead the race?

downtube42

I understand where the doctor is coming from.
I've started more weight lifting regiments than I can remember. I'll probably start another dozen times. I hate it.

I started cycling once, in 1965. I love it.

My cycling hobby causes me to eat well, watch my weight, set goals, socialize, get fresh air, see the word, and hang out with people one third my age.

I concur with the claim that diversity and more weight bearing exercise would be better for my health. But I'm going to continue doing what I love because I love it.

John E

Bicycling is the only sport I have ever truly, deeply loved, but I have supplemented it for several years with weight training to maintain bone density and muscle mass. I can't pretend to relish weight training the way I do cycling, but I have gotten visible results on my skinny mesomorph arms and shoulders, and my wife has definitely noticed this, thereby encouraging me to keep it up, just as I encourage her to keep taking ballet lessons, which she currently does over Zoom.

HeyItsSara

Thank you, sure I'll read it. And I take what he says with a grain of salt anyway!!!

Road Fan

Right now I'm at the state of being 50-ish pounds above where I should be. I almost have the bike I want to train on assembled, I"ve had all the cardiac and arterial imaging and testing done and been cleared, and I did my first ride last Monday, which told me I need some tweaking and lower gears for the time being. But, I ride about 8 miles, went up a bunch of small steep Ann Arbor hills, and discovered the Rivet saddle is almost suitable for training in Rivendell MUSA pants without padded shorts.

My doc tells me she wants to see me doing whatever exercise that I am willing to keep doing. She did suggest adding some weights in there, too along with the yoga and cycling.

I also like to walk, I do about 5 miles with my wife up to three times a week. I have to start a little slower than her to let the little cramps work themselves out, but I can easily get 10,000 steps, again up and down the hills.

I'd like to do a few metric centuries by Labor Day. While big organized events are motivational, they are are also aggravating in terms of bike management and dealing with what the other 20 people around me are going to do. Mrs. Road Fan and I have done metrics on our own in the past - no reason to depend on big organized rides.

355Mono

Until the pandemic, swimming was my upper body workout of choice. Swimming also kept my lower back pain free. I can't wait to get back into the pool. I am ramping up my biking slowly, but the increased speed and hills are causing some lower back pain. I am doing stretches which is helping. Swimming is much more effective for me. I have had fit kits for my bikes, so I'm not sure why the back pain is occurring. It's been a few seasons and maybe another fit check is a good idea.

Lemond1985

Don't stretch your back! There was an extensive study, linked here a few months back, that showed stretching the back actually hurts it and makes it more susceptible to injury. I stretched my back for decades, and had nothing but problems.

Took me forever to get the idea out of my head that the cure for back pain is stretching. But what it does is loosen the connective tissues, and cause discs and vertebrae to float around more, where they can much easily drift out of alignment.

The study found (as did I) that rather than stretching the back, exercises like planks and "bird dogs" work much better for strengthening ad keeping the back in alignment. Stretching is fine for other parts of the body, but not the back.

Carbonfiberboy 

I don't recall seeing such a study. I googled, and found many studies recommending back stretches and one saying don't do forward (hamstring) stretches if you have radiculopathy, but knees to chest and leaning back stretches are still recommended. I have spinal stenosis, thin discs, and arthritic facets (MRI) and have been using stretching for the past 15 years or so. I do the standard seated stretches plus the McKenzie System exercises (stretches, see: https://www.bikeforums.net/21354325-post7.html and/or google). These, plus back strengthening work has kept my back almost pain free.

For back strengthening, I've done gym work: deadlifts, barbell squats, stiff-legged deadlifts, and the weighted hyperextension machine. The gym being temporarily closed (we hope), I do my stretches, then pushups, front plank, and twisting side plank. Those are working OK if I do as much of those as possible, though I only do one set. I would emphasize that neither strengthening nor stretching keep back pain away by themselves. Been there, tried that. I have to do both. And no, none of this keeps my back pain free off the bike. Yeah it hurts, but it's OK, just minor, and on the bike it doesn't hurt at all. Back's still good enough to do hard long distance rides, pain free (in my back, that is!) Sure hope I can get back into the gym in the fall, but we'll see.

All that said, if you have a slipped or bulging disc, best talk to your spine specialist. Another caution: I once tore a hamstring doing seated forward stretches to an extreme, nose to knee type of thing. I don't go that far anymore. Hamstring healed up fine.

fastcarbon

I am fortunate to have several doctors (I have many potential life threatening conditions) who all either support or do not object to high level cycling and running; I am aware that I can no longer ride for hours at 22-23 mph as I did in my 40's but do push myself to the limits at least twice on weekends on 2-4 hour group rides. Mondays I just rest. During the week I do power intervals and either endurance intervals or recovery intervals two days a week. Recently I added some coaching and have experienced PR's on Strava beating times back to 2013 when I started using the software. It just seems if one is willing to do the work then loss of fitness happens much more slowly. Before covid I went to the gym once a week to do weight machines and spin classes. I have just pulled my old free weights out of the attic and am trying to put together a home gym. Although I am currently getting faster I am no longer riding 150-200 mi per week. Since I started using Training Peaks I train 6 days a week for shorter periods.

Machoman121

[QUOTE=Lemond1985;21472136]Don't stretch your back! There was an extensive study, linked here a few months back, that showed stretching the back actually hurts it and makes it more susceptible to injury. I stretched my back for decades, and had nothing but problems.

Took me forever to get the idea out of my head that the cure for back pain is stretching. But what it does is loosen the connective tissues, and cause discs and vertebrae to float around more, where they can much easily drift out of alignment.

The study found (as did I) that rather than stretching the back, exercises like planks and "bird dogs" work much better for strengthening ad keeping the back in alignment. Stretching is fine for other parts of the body, but not the back.




[/QUOTEI
I don't believe stretches do anything useful....I've got a back hyperextension setup and regularly do lower back workouts - like good mornings....it feels good strengthening the lower back directly. my theory is that a lot of people have a weak lower back or they don't exercise that part enough. But don't take my word for it - i'm no expert on any subjects...i'm lucky so far to not have any lower back injuries or pain. One of the benefits of not being very sporty in the earlier part of my life is that i have not accumulated any serious injuries from any sports.

Clyde1820

I figure we've got a few things going on, as we age. Load-bearing strength exercising doesn't have good alternatives, and it can impact strength, bone density, muscle mass, and BP/cardio. "Cardio" activities don't really have good alternatives, either, being generally the better options for keeping the heart stronger, blood vessels prevalent (ie, in extremities, where flow reduction can cause all sorts of problems), BP in line, etc. Makes sense to mix a range of exercises, to keep all "cylinders firing" properly. Even if the level of performance keeps going down as we enter legit Old Fart status.

I'm with you, though. Adding a moderate amount of various other activities can have serious benefits. Yes, if there's only time enough to devote to exercise, then doing different things will "take from" the time allocation. But then, you get those benefits as well. You can, though, alter the type of cycling you do, or the type of rowing, etc. Long/slow distance is one thing, and in many ways provides (over the long-term) cardio in a way that isn't easy to achieve with other methods. But you can alter cardio to incorporate much interval-based training, hill-based training, etc. Can provide cardio but strength as well, while doing the "cardio" activity. Likewise, strength training can be just sitting doing dumbbell and barbell exercises. But, one can also do circuits and choose a greater number of exercises that are compound (multi-muscle-group) motions, yielding vastly greater cardio and muscle involvement for the given amount of time. Lots of ways to slice that onion, IOW.

From back in my running days: started doing mostly mid- to long-distance runs at moderate pace. Got much fitter. But then began to incorporate hills and/or intervals/Fartlek speed work into the training, along with varying the distance and challenge of the routes selected as the week progressed. Vastly more challenging, got me stronger, was tougher cardio-wise (though for shorter periods), allowed in-line recovery stints despite the harder work, etc. Became a much, much better runner, mostly through variation of the training in such ways. Better cardio, much better strength, better flexibility, better ability to withstand "curve balls" thrown at me on an unknown run. Could be applied to running, rowing, floor/strength exercising, etc.

Thomas15

Born in 1958 so one of the younger ones here LOL!

Anyway I had my annual physical a few weeks ago. Since the last one I had Lyme disease and a colonostomy. I've been on the bike for about 18 months and on track to do 6000 miles in 2020. My Dr. said to me as others have heard quote "Tom you are in good shape".

I really don't know exactly what it is about this current burst of bicycle happiness I'm experiencing but I have never been this motivated to get on the bike and do the work. Big hills, long endurance rides you name it. I'm slow but I'm putting in the miles. Having an indoor trainer and a virtual program has been a big help. Last night I planned to do an outside ride but black rain clouds put me on the Alpe d'Zwift instead.

Thomas15

I like organized rides also but due to the situation i just started hammering away at it solo. In the last 6 weeks I've done 5 metric centuries and plan to do one every week for the rest of the season. Of course I will miss a few weeks but plan on at least 10 more before weather sets in.

I did a 65 mile charity ride last summer, this was my first hefty ride in over 25 years. I was somewhat unprepared. The course was fairly flat. My time was ok given the situation but a few things stood out. The biggest was leg cramps. Still, my on the bike time was 4 hours 49 minutes average speed around 13 MPH.I took four rest stops for a total of 50 minutes off the bike. I really wanted to vastly improve that time this year for the same event, was looking to do the ride non-stop and in about or under 4 hours. This is what motivated me to train over the winter but now the ride is cancelled. 2021 will eventually get here though and I'm keeping my feet to the fire.